Why is this C ++ code code not compiling?

Question

Does anyone know why this will not compile? I tried both VS 2008 and GCC 4.something, and both spit out errors. It doesn’t matter if I refer to "ThisFunctionDoesNotCompile ()".

I can get around this by simply passing "InternalType" as the second template parameter in Base, but I'm still wondering why this happens as an error.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class DataClass
{
public:
    int m_data;
};

template<typename DerivedType>
class Base
{
public:
    int ThisFunctionCompiles()
    {
        // No problems here.

        typename DerivedType::InternalType temp;
        temp.m_data = 5;
        return temp.m_data;
    }

    // error C2039: 'InternalType' : is not a member of 'Derived<InInternalType>'
    typename DerivedType::InternalType ThisFunctionDoesNotCompile()
    {
        return static_cast<DerivedType*>(this)->GetInternalData();
    }
};

template<typename InInternalType>
class Derived : public Base<Derived<InInternalType> >
{
public:
    typedef InInternalType InternalType;

    InternalType GetInternalData()
    {
        return m_internalData;
    }

private:
    InternalType m_internalData;


public:
    void SetInternalData( int newVal )
    {
        m_internalData.m_data = newVal;
    }
};

int main()
{

    Derived<DataClass> testDerived;
    testDerived.SetInternalData( 3 );

    cout << testDerived.GetInternalData().m_data << endl;
    cout << testDerived.ThisFunctionCompiles() << endl;

    // The compiler gives an error regardless of whether or not this is commented out.
    //cout << testDerived.ThisFunctionDoesNotCompile().m_data << endl;

    return 0;
}

These are the errors I get in VS 2008:

1>e:\test\generaltestprogram\generaltestprogram\main.cpp(27) : error C2039: 'InternalType' : is not a member of 'Derived<InInternalType>'
1>        with
1>        [
1>            InInternalType=DataClass
1>        ]
1>        e:\test\generaltestprogram\generaltestprogram\main.cpp(35) : see reference to class template instantiation 'Base<DerivedType>' being compiled
1>        with
1>        [
1>            DerivedType=Derived<DataClass>
1>        ]
1>        e:\test\generaltestprogram\generaltestprogram\main.cpp(58) : see reference to class template instantiation 'Derived<InInternalType>' being compiled
1>        with
1>        [
1>            InInternalType=DataClass
1>        ]
1>e:\test\generaltestprogram\generaltestprogram\main.cpp(27) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'ThisFunctionDoesNotCompile'
1>e:\test\generaltestprogram\generaltestprogram\main.cpp(27) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
1>e:\test\generaltestprogram\generaltestprogram\main.cpp(28) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
1>e:\test\generaltestprogram\generaltestprogram\main.cpp(28) : warning C4183: 'ThisFunctionDoesNotCompile': missing return type; assumed to be a member function returning 'int'

And here is what GCC gives me:

main.cpp: In instantiation of 'Base<Derived<DataClass> >':
main.cpp:96:   instantiated from 'Derived<DataClass>'
main.cpp:119:   instantiated from here
main.cpp:88: error: no type named 'InternalType' in 'class Derived<DataClass>'

Answer 1

While the Base template class is created as the parent class of the Derived class, the Derived class is not a full type.

Base<Derived<DataClass> > Derived<DataClass>, , Derived<DataClass> . , Base<Derived<DataClass> > , Derived<DataClass> , . , , , , , , .

, , clone() . . ().